Ralph Ali 11E1, Mr Parker

Throughout the play Priestly presents the character of Sybil Birling as being the epitome and
parody of the snobby, ignorant Edwardian upper classes. This is achieved when J.B Priestly
initially showcases Mrs Birling as unsympathetic but socially powerful, portraying her as a by
product of the broken and flawed class system that existed during Edwardian Britain and also by
emphasising her refusal to accept any sort of blame or responsibility for her actions instead
deflecting them onto others.

At the premise of the play the writer showcases Mr Birling as being unsympathetic, controlling
and arrogant. This is backed up by the description of Mrs Birling in the opening stage directions,
“a rather cold woman and her husbands social superior” Priestly use of the word “rather” could
be interpreted as Priestley emphasising the fact the Mrs Birling is an extremely complex and
someone whom hides her true motives and intentions and is thus difficult for the audience to
assess. Furthermore Sybil Birling’s frequent use of imperatives and exclamatives; “Arthur!”,
“Eric!”, “Sheila!” directly shows the audience that Sybil Birling doesn't necessarily treat her family
with respect and that she likes to think of herself as the most superior member of the Birling
household. All of these points foreshadow that unlike Eric and Sheila, Sybil Birling’s character arc
involves her doubling down on her ignorance and stubbornness and that she will never be
inclined to change the corrupt way in which she views the world. This therefore links with
Priestley’s intention and the context of the play as Priestly is crafting Mrs Birling to almost be a
kind of parody of the upper classes that existed in both the Edwardian Britain and Britain in the
1940’s, the composition of the audience who would likely be watching this play would mainly
have drastically different social attitudes to the ones that Mrs Birling holds (Britain had just elected
a socialist labour government) and thus would probably both laugh at her ignorance and cringe in
despair at her lack of sympathy and lack of respect. Therefore this portrays Mrs Birling as being
disrespectful, controlling and arrogant, hence showing her importance in the play.

Further in the play Priestly presents Mrs Birling as being a by product of the broken and flawed
class system that existed during Edwardian Britain. This is shown with an affirmative belief that
Mrs Birling holds; that people of the aristocratic and upper classes have an almost angelic
demaeanor and behaviour and can’t possibly commit any wrongdoing and that people of a lower
socioeconomic background are incredibly problematic and flawed individuals whom often commit
wrongdoing. Perhaps this is best summed up with Mrs Birling’s reaction to the revelations
surrounding Alderman Meggarty; “Well really, Alderman Meggarty, we are learning something!”
Furthermore this core belief of Sybil Birling’s is shown, perhaps more prominently, when she
refuses to support Eva Smith at the woman's shelter; “girls of that class.” This shows that she
immediately views Eva Smith as an inferior due to her class, social status and socioeconomic
background and further shows her lack of sympathy towards others a common trait within her
characture; this also further emphases the fact that Sybil Birling believes that her view, that people
of a higher social class are innately better than other, is justified and right. This therefore links with
Priestley’s intention and the context of the play as Sybil Birling’s ‘core belief’ was dying out as by
the 1940’s it was seen as outdated and downright cruel, therefore Priestly is showing the
audience the progress of how social attitudes have changed in Britain and is hinting that the
social attitudes should further change and that the class system should be abolished. Therefore
this shows Mrs Birling as being a by product of the broken and flawed class system which hence
shows her importance in the play.

Priestly also embeds the idea that Mrs Birling has a sexist outlook on Edwardian Britain. This is
shown when Mrs Birling ushers Sheila out of the room when the ‘men’ are talking, “men with
important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on their buisness.”
Here Mrs Birling is effectively drawing a clear line between how ‘woman’ should conduct
themselves (both socially, professionally and recreationally) and contrasting it with how ‘men’
should conduct themselves. This is emphasing the fact that Mrs Birling believes that men and
woman are different and her view that men exclusively spend their “time and energy on their
business” hints that Mrs Birling also believes that men are intellectually supieror to woman. This
links with the context of the play as during World War Two (when the play was written) woman
took many jobs vacated by men who were forced to fight in the war. Therefore many woman
watching this play would be quite frankly disgusted at the attitudes that Sybil Birling is expressing
as many would know first hand that woman can do just as good of job as what men can do. It
could be interpreted that Priestly believes that woman should still be given more rights and is
trying to persuade the audience to take a more active stance on woman’s issues. Therefore this
shows that Mrs Birling has a sexist outlook on Edwardian Britain which hence shows her
importance in the play.

In the final act of the play, Priestly presents Mrs Birling as extremely stubborn and a person who
simply cannot accept any blame or responsibility for her actions. This is shown towards the end of
the play when Mrs Birling is in complete denial over her actions rearranging Eva and instead of
being accountable for actions and apologising she instead blames the other members of the
Birling household, such as her son Eric; “the father of the child is responsible”, “I accept no blame
at all.” This outwardly disrespectful tone present amongst the two quotes shows Mrs Birling
deflecting the blame and accountability of the suicide of Eva Smith onto Eric showcasing that she
simply can’t comprehend partaking in any sort of wrong doing because of her social class. Her
myopic worldview that ‘she simply cannot accept any blame’ again showcases the fact that she
has the corrupt and sickening view that her actions are completely justified. This links into the
context of the play as it shows that Mrs Birling is abusing her social status to cause harm towards
others something that would not have gone down well with the 1940’s audience as they were
much more inclined to believe in the beliefs of collective responsibility and community. Priestley
using Mrs Birling’s extreme beliefs to portray Mrs Birling is a character that is easy to loathe and
some whom would outrage and shock the audience. Therefore this portrays Mrs Birling as
extremely stubborn and someone who won’t accept any blame or responsibility for her dark
deeds, hence showing her importance within the play.

To conclude Priestly presents the character of Sybil Birling as being the epitome and parody of
the snobby, ignorant Edwardian upper classes. He does this with the intention of showing the
audience exactly how not to behave and think and giving them the impression that they must
openly condemn and oppose the ‘Mrs Birling's’ (ignorant upper class snobs) and people with
similarly held beliefs that they encounter throughout their lives rather than stay silent.